Latest US Attacks On Drug Boats Brings Total To 19, As Conservatives Urge Trump Stop Foreign Distractions

At a moment that more and more conservative voices are calling on President Trump to drop the distraction of entangling foreign policy issues and instead work on setting domestic issues in order after a lengthy government shutdown, the Pentagon has announced yet more strikes on alleged drug boats off the coast of South America.

It’s hard to keep track at this point, but the latest action takes the number of boats blown up near Venezuela to 19, resulting in over 70 suspected traffickers killed.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth announced two more strikes which happened Sunday. He wrote on X Monday, “Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, two lethal kinetic strikes were conducted on two vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations.”

He added, “Both strikes were conducted in international waters and 3 male narco-terrorists were aboard each vessel. All 6 were killed. No US forces were harmed. Under President Trump, we are protecting the homeland and killing these cartel terrorists who wish to harm our country and its people.”

Still, Washington has yet to provide specific evidence that those targeted were involved in drug smuggling or posed any direct threat to the United States, and some critics have questioned why these boast aren’t subject to conventional interdicts by agencies like the Coast Guard or DEA.

Instead, the boast are without warning just blown out of the water, typically via drone strike.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has meanwhile accused Donald Trump of trying to overthrow his government. One driving motive of US action might be the fact that the Venezuela sits on the world’s largest proven crude reserves, but getting it out of the ground utilizing the socialist country’s derelict and broken infrastructure is another problem.

Meanwhile, The Federalist’s Sean Davis recently sounded off…

Trump needs to ditch the foreign policy crap and focus all his attention on the domestic economy, which is still not working for the majority of people. Right now he looks weak and rudderless. Be mad all you want, but it’s the truth.

Newly minted college grads can’t find work and are saddled with debt. Where is their path to the American dream right now? Who is giving them a vision of a future worth fighting for?

I don’t know who is advising congressional Republicans on strategy right now, but it is whoever it is has an IQ barely approaching room temperature.

Republicans right now have no accomplishments, no plans, and no vision. Why on earth would anyone be excited to go vote for them…

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) November 9, 2025

Davis continued, “You cannot have a viable country or future when half your country and all its young people are locked out of the economy and locked out of ever owning a home or much of anything beyond next month’s streaming subscription. Does anyone in Washington care about this? Anyone at all?“